Humanoid

I heard about Thief 4 a while ago, then saw it was available on Steam and watched the trailer. It looked okay, but then was flabbergasted when it wasn't Russell doing the voice. Upon research I read about a bunch of the other problems. Can't jump whenever? Wha? Yeah, jumping is a context-sensitive action now. "You're at a large chasm. Press Jump button now to jump over it." I imagine it's kind of like how the Mass Effect games for instance handled jumping. Most elements are directed like that, rope arrows for example are used when you have all but a big neon sign pointing to a surface saying "hey, shoot rope arrow at this!"

Was assuming free was a criterion here. Would be good if they were having one of their trial periods that they occasionally have, but nope, not on at the moment. I don't really have much, for someone dipping their toes into MMOs it's really down to trying EVE plus a 'conventional' WoW-model MMO. But since WoW's trial is very, very limited, you can substitute something like Rift or, dare I say, SWTOR. Hell, maybe Tera is an option in that I hear it's probably the closest to GW2 in terms of more action-oriented play. Actually, TESO's final beta period is this weekend, and it shouldn't be too hard to nab a key for that, it's probably the last chance to play it free for the next 6 months or so.

Futureproofing is almost always a false economy, maybe 20% more usable life for 200% of the cost. Just get a non-OEM copy of Windows 7 so the key doesn't get tied to your motherboard and upgrade that year early. Just made a tech purchase of my own, an X-rite i1Display Pro colorimeter. Since it's on the way from Amazon I figured I'd throw in a few more things to make the most of shipping costs, so I bought a couple CPU heatsinks, a Scythe Mugen 4 and a Scythe Big Shuriken 2 because they have no Australian distributor. Also a 7" serrated ceramic knife and a set of three scissors because why not.

Nah, launching at $15 before being forced to go F2P 6-12 months later is the norm. Even relatively modest MMOs still have the delusion that despite all the others failing, they'll be the special snowflake that breaks the trend - fellow upcoming MMO Wildstar is also charging $14.99/mo which seems supremely optimistic to me.

It's generally considered bad practice to link directly to downloads instead of to the download page. One of those established Internet etiquette things (I hate the term netiquette ), better to acknowledge the author of the software by linking to their homepage instead. This also ensures the other party can get the link to the current version of the software, instead of an archived version. It's not uncommon for forums and other communities to have blanket bans on hotlinks like that, and indeed some ban the use of URL shorteners completely (a stance I support totally). Sure both can be said to be safe more often than not, but it only takes one exception. I'd further point out that pointing out that it's a legitimate piece of software is not a meaningful method of protection since trojans by their very nature masquerade as legitimate software. I'm not accusing you of foul play, nor was the other poster necessarily, indeed I know that particular site is fine. It's just bad security practice.

Hell, Skyrim is a better Thief than Thiaf.

Okay but do you honesty think people wouldn't buy a major RPG just because there was mandatory but well written Romance? Are people that opposed to the idea of Romance which would only be a small part of the RPG experience anyway? In a word, yes. In more words, it doesn't matter how well a romance is written, it's impossible to make a character that appeals to everyone. A mandatory romance assumes everyone will react the same way to a given character, which is nothing but pure folly. I have quit games outright after being presented by an unpalatable forced decision or characterisation. With foreknowledge I would not have purchased the game at all, but it's hard to discover the nature of said events without spoiling the game. Foreknowledge that romances are mandatory, on the other hand, will be easy, and consign the game to the do-not-play list. P.S. Oh god, imagine ME2 had a forced Miranda romance. That's the worst example I can think of, of a case where the developers completely misanticipated the player reaction to their headline character.

As bold a move as copying all the other aspects of WoW, yes. It's totally going to work this time guys!

Yeah, and that supposed majority of people are people who would buy the game anyway. Conversely, the people firmly against it might end up not buying the game. Sure, that might not be a huge number, but then it only needs to be measured against the number of new customers who buy the game when they wouldn't have otherwise, a demographic which I think would be very very small indeed. So no, it's hard to see any possible circumstance in which that would be a good idea economically.

Isn't that how you make beef jerky?

AutoHotKey itself is a legitimate program, however, so just grab it from the official website and you're golden.

Actually I hear the new Garrett largely can't climb many walls anyway. Or even jump, except for a few select places.

That's like making a game based solely around ME2's planet scanning or Oblivion's persuasion minigame, is it not?

Counterpoint: generic elf lady they're using for marketing. While not in itself definitive evidence of anything, I feel it does kind of illustrate where the priorities were here - making a traditional generic MMO with pretty elves the likes of which you see by the dozen in "beautiful elves" type project on the Nexusmods site. Disclosure: In general I'm not a fan of the TES setting, but one aspect I do admire is their willingness to have these non-traditional (relatively), very alien elves compared to your stock fantasy setting.

In case you missed it, the developers did at least explain their decision. It might sound like a joke, but nope, it's the real way their thought processes operated (or didn't operate, as the case may be). http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-04-03-thief-dev-explains-why-it-ditched-original-garrett-voice-actor

Yeah, and the "waiting for Titanfall" game would be like the "waiting for SimCity" server fail game. :D

Uninstall then smash the disc to pieces.

Oh right, yeah, the boxed copies will contain Steam keys. Do note however, that there is a region lock on the activation of some keys, e.g. you can't activate a key from a US box to a European Steam account without using a VPN.

This is a Steamworks game, not a Uplay game, so yes, you can. Buying from the Steam store as a gift will result in a giftable copy in your Steam inventory. Buying from another digital games reseller (such as GreenManGaming or GamersGate) will just give you a Steam key that your friend can redeem.

Angela Merkel?

I studied some form of computing and am therefore on safe ground as male and female connector plugs occur in almost 1:1 proportions.

Is that statement intended to be one of praise for those two games, or a subtle damning of the third game?

How do you set a curriculum? a) Cover the events of history by order of significance and explore their protagonists by their roles in said event. b) Select figures of history by their physiology (not just gender) in proportions according to some set quota, then explore what events each happened to be involved in. I think the perception that the latter is happening in some institutions is what's mainly drawing ire here.

Remember how Bloodlines abruptly falls off a cliff about two-thirds in? Lionheart falls off the cliff about a quarter* of the way in, as soon as you leave the initial city. * Never played it through so it's a rough guess, someone who's suffered through it can probably give a better estimate.

Also better without darkspawn and demons and whatnot. And elves, obviously.